We're having enough trouble maintaining spec at my club now with only Tamiya cars. These should prove interesting: Some enthusiastic new racer shows up with his cool new HPI acquisition, and I have to explain the concept of Tamiya M chassis.

I still want one though.

It makes me wonder if Tamiya is finally going to offer an update of the M cars. How cool would an M-05 be?!?

Jim

I've seen part numbers for Asia and Australia. None for Europe or North America. :(

Well, I hope we get them in the U.S. When people start racing them I'll be interested in hearing their opinions. Hopefully, the guys at HPI in the U.S. are wrong.

What about ball diff and universals? Although you can now pack the gear diff with stuff i personally believe a serious mini racer should invest in universals.

But otherwise i entirely agree that the M03R isnt really value for money and have told this to a couple of people after i bought one myself.

But that applies to BOTH cars Marty.... which is why I didn't put it in as part of the costing.

I was merely trying to show that at a basic level - this is all you need.

Unis and ball diffs are the next level up and would be for both models 'R' and Standard.

Heya, I'm curious about a couple of practices that some mini racers use. They sound at least partially like bunk to me, but I'd like to understand a little more about this stuff.

1. Differential centering: I have heard that some people spend a lot of time centering their differential in the chassis, using very thin shims. How exactly does one tell how much shim a diff needs? It's in an enclosed space, and I would assume this makes getting a feeler gauge in there rather tough.

2. Gear lapping/matching: This is something I actually have done. What I'm wondering about are other techniques that I may not know about. On other gearboxes I have used things like toothpaste and fire. Both work. Just wondering if anyone else has tried and succeeded with any other techniques.

I'm just looking for something that will keep me up all night rebuilding my car before race day, that likely won't provide any concrete results.

Ahhh fair enuff :)

that's a cool pic of the switch tony. nice find!

is it fwd? kinda looks like there's a shaft.

i hate 4wd mini! 4wd belongs on the TC's

RWD or FWD - FTW!!

Doesn't look like anyone's gonna bite Jim....:sneaky:

Yup, you're right there, Tony. After spending a boring day at work yesterday and a little time late at night, I did learn a bit about gear lapping, it's benefits and downfalls. I'll keep it short.

The benefit is a smoother drive train. The downside is the possibility of the gears taking on odd profiles during the process. There are many things one can use as a lapping compound such as toothpaste, polishing compound, etc.

I smeared a little toothpaste on my gears after having installed some crap bearings. I ran the car on the bench at low speed for about 15-20 minutes, took it apart and cleaned it all out. The gearbox is quieter now and runs quite smoothly. Faster? Maybe.

Differential centering: I still don't know how one would figure this out.

Jim

Way too much trouble.
Spritz the gears with ArmorAll, let dry & viola, quiet, long lasting, free spiining gearbox.

Which ArmorAll product?

I usually don't have time to use any kind of lube. When gears are replaced it's generally between heats or batteries. When a lube is used, White Lightning is the best. A must on universals and may work on cvds, but don't know for sure as I don't run them.

Original.

Quick question for you mini fans. What is the pitch of the diff gear on the mini ?